Tootfinder

'Engulfed in flames' — Ukraine strikes Russia's railway infrastructure, fuel tanks, HUR source says, releases video: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/28/engulfed-in-flames-ukraine-strikes.html

Equivalence via surjections
Tom Leinster
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20555 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.20555

Equivalence via surjections
Many types of categorical structure obey the following principle: the natural notion of equivalence is generated, as an equivalence relation, by identifying $A$ with $B$ when there exists a strictly structure-preserving map $A \to B$ that is genuinely (not just essentially) surjective in each dimension and faithful in the top dimension. We prove this principle for four types of structure: categories, monoidal categories, bicategories and double categories. The last of these theorems suggests th…

Flowing Straighter with Conditional Flow Matching for Accurate Speech Enhancement
Mattias Cross, Anton Ragni
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20584 https://arxiv…

Flowing Straighter with Conditional Flow Matching for Accurate Speech Enhancement
Current flow-based generative speech enhancement methods learn curved probability paths which model a mapping between clean and noisy speech. Despite impressive performance, the implications of curved probability paths are unknown. Methods such as Schrodinger bridges focus on curved paths, where time-dependent gradients and variance do not promote straight paths. Findings in machine learning research suggest that straight paths, such as conditional flow matching, are easier to train and offer b…

Digital and Robotic Twinning for Validation of Proximity Operations and Formation Flying
Aviad Golan, Gregory Zin, Zahra Ahmed, Emily Bates, Toby Bell, Pol Francesch Huc, Samuel Y. W. Low, Juergen Bosse, Simone D'Amico
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.20034

Digital and Robotic Twinning for Validation of Proximity Operations and Formation Flying
In spacecraft Rendezvous, Proximity Operations (RPO), and Formation Flying (FF), the Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) system is safety-critical and must meet strict performance requirements. However, validating such systems is challenging due to the complexity of the space environment, necessitating a verification and validation (V&V) process that bridges simulation and real-world behavior. The key contribution of this paper is a unified, end-to-end digital and robotic twinning framework t…

Falling stars: a fall-decorated rational shuffle theorem
Alessandro Iraci, Roberto Pagaria, Giovanni Paolini
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20935 https://arxiv…

Falling stars: a fall-decorated rational shuffle theorem
In this paper, we formulate a rational analog of the fall Delta theorem and the Delta square conjecture. We find a new dinv statistic on fall-decorated paths on a $(m+k) \times (n+k)$ rectangle that simultaneously extends the previously known dinv statistics on decorated square objects and non-decorated rectangular objects. We prove a symmetric function formula for the $q,t$-generating function of fall-decorated rectangular Dyck paths as a skewing operator applied to $e_{m,n+km}$ and, condi…

50 years ago today, mickey hart & zakir hussain & the diga rhythm band with #JerryGarcia in golden gate park, playing an early version of a dead classic while opening for the jefferson starship. 3rd of 3 diga shows, following 2 at winterland, hart’s 2nd ever extra-dead gigs, after 1973’s experiment in quad sound, last until ’81. from stage mikes, i think:

How do Monarch butterflies survive?
I've planted several California native milkweeds - the Monarchs have a definite preference for it. (It's fun to work in the garden and have Monarchs flying around me.)
Eventually the milkweeds are covered by very healthy looking, strikingly patterned caterpillars. The caterpillars consume the milkweed plant until the plant is a leafless hulk. And the caterpillars vanish.
But I have yet to see a chrysalis.
I'm going to…

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MidnightInAPerfectWorld
Smith N Hack:
🎵 Falling Stars
#SmithNHack

Revival of Layered Ferroelectrics in Thin Films
Elzbieta Gradauskaite
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20742 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.20742

Revival of Layered Ferroelectrics in Thin Films
Layered perovskites are a versatile class of ferroelectrics with their structural anisotropy reflected in unusual electrostatics that give rise to exceptional ferroelectric properties. These materials fall into four main families: Aurivillius, Carpy-Galy, Ruddlesden-Popper, and Dion-Jacobson phases; each forming natural superlattices by interleaving perovskite slabs with spacer layers. For a long time, these materials were considered too structurally complex to prepare as high-quality thin film…

Russia boosts oil exports following Ukrainian strikes on refineries, Reuters reports: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/27/russia-boosts-oil-exports-following.html